Conventional wisdom in Canadian political and media circles seems to be that Albertans are almost to a man and woman deeply discontented with their relationship with the rest of Canada. Yet recent polling about the divisive and deceptively worded separation referendum foisted on Albertans by their province’s now separatist dominated United Conservative Party Government strongly […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Separatist ‘transition plan’ is propaganda intended to create a sense of reassurance and inevitability
On Thursday, a mostly anonymous group of some 47 individuals identifying themselves as “the Alberta Transition Council” dropped a document they called “The Alberta Transition Plan, a Practical Analysis of Alberta’s Transition from Province to an Independent Country.” Only two authors are named in the document, St. Albert lawyer Keith Wilson, a leader of the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
UCP slaps ‘punitive tax’ on solar panels, opening new front in its War on Renewable Energy
Never let it be said that the Alberta’s United Conservative Party government isn’t in favour of recycling stuff – at least as long as that can be used to create higher costs and more red tape to help strangle the development of renewable energy. Yesterday, the UCP opened a new front in its War on […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith’s official message kept changing yesterday – what the heck was that about?
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith marked the “Alberta Day” moment in time with a couple of significantly different official messages and an apocalyptic prophecy. Yesterday morning at 10 o’clock, an email from the government showed up in journalists’ email accounts bearing Ms. Smith’s official Alberta Day message. This was obviously considered important enough to be reproduced […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Good morning, my fellow Albertans! Happy Alberta Day!
Good morning, my fellow Albertans! Happy Alberta Day! (Such as it is.) No, you can’t sleep in. Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney’s lame celebration is a “recognized commemorative day.” So, no day off for you. And no overtime either. Better get crackin’! The legal holiday is next Monday. You know, Labour Day, a national holiday. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Impact of Meta AI data centre could add up to $460 a year to the typical Albertan’s electricity bill: Pembina Institute
Oddly, Alberta media seem to have had very little to say about the new analysis by the Pembina Institute that the $13-billion Artificial Intelligence data centre planned by Meta Platforms Inc. in Sturgeon County could add from $270 to $460 a year to Albertans’ electricity bills once the hyperscale installation has powered up. “At the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Forget fighting Trump’s tariffs, just be ‘too friendly, kind and helpful to resist,’ Danielle Smith advises
Now seen from coast to coast as the weakest link in the national response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s ugly tariff war on Canada, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith took to a podium in Grande Prairie yesterday to do some reputational damage control. She trotted out a few pieties about how unfairly U.S. President Donald Trump […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
It’s time to rename the Strait of Juan de Fuca ‘the Canadian Channel’
With a few exceptions, most Canadians seem to agree that while a tariff war with the United States is far from ideal, the only sensible way to respond to bad-faith bargaining by the Trump Administration in the United States is with dollar-for-dollar reciprocal tariffs, targeted to hit Americans where they’ll feel it. The rare exceptions […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Voters everywhere in North America turn against AI data centres with a vengeance
Now that voters everywhere in North America are turning against Artificial Intelligence data centres hard and fast, what’s Alberta’s United Conservative Party going to do? They’ve spent two years planning to woo data centres to Alberta as if they were the greatest industrial development since the invention of the steam engine. They even quietly created […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
A trade war with the U.S. may not be great, but the day after Labour Day 2026 is a great moment for it to start
If a country had to pick a moment to strike back with targeted countervailing tariffs at the Trump Administration’s habitual bad-faith trade bargaining, surely it would be difficult to imagine a better moment than the day after Labour Day 2026. As is now well understood by almost everybody on both sides of the world’s longest […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith, of all people, should have seen UCP problems with AI data centres coming
You’d think Danielle Smith, of all people, would have seen her government’s troubles with Artificial Intelligence data centres coming right up Highway 2. After all, back in 2011 and 2012 when Ms. Smith was the still the new leader of the fledgling Wildrose Party, she ruthlessly exploited the Progressive Conservative Government’s plans to build multi-billion-dollar […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith muses about holding binding separation vote before next year’s general election
If Alberta separatists manage to eke out a victory in Danielle Smith’s Oct. 19 referendum, she says she’ll “have to” move quickly to a binding referendum before voters have a chance to pass judgment on her United Conservative Party Government in a general election. So say couple of far-right, pro-separatist outlets that are normally simpatico […]